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The Manchester Standard: A Net Zero Carbon Future
We are proud members of the Manchester Climate Change Agency Task Group which has worked on the ‘Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon Buildings in Manchester’. As part of the group of private, public and third sector representatives brought together, we worked to develop policy, explore issues such as viability, delivery processes, and skills and training. The Roadmap has now been officially adopted.
The full policy document can be found here.
The key recommendations of the Roadmap are:
- A ‘Manchester Standard’ for net zero carbon new buildings should be adopted.
- All new development should be net zero carbon in operation from 2023, without use of offsetting or ‘carbon tax’.
- All new development is expected to deliver a significant reduction in embodied carbon from construction from 2023.
The Manchester Standard provides targets for reducing energy demand, reducing embodied carbon, measuring in-use performance, low carbon energy supply, and zero carbon balance.
Stringent energy and embodied carbon targets are proposed, which align with those of the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
For operational emissions, the Roadmap recommends new development should not have any on-site combustion of fossil fuels, which aligns with the emerging Future Buildings Standard and Future Homes Standard. Furthermore, the Roadmap recommends annual energy demand is met through a combination of renewable energy generation, or via a minimum 15-year renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), energy storage and smart controls.
Embodied and whole life carbon, which are already considered within the London Plan and emerging Places for Everyone plan for Greater Manchester, should be measured using a nationally recognised methodology, with targets gradually becoming more stringent over time. The taskforce recognises a Carbon Tax or offset fund to mitigate embodied carbon is likely to be prohibitively expensive if introduced before 2023. Further deliberation is required on whether a Carbon Tax would be needed to meet proposed targets where not achieved through direct reduction measures. It is recognised that over-engineering is a contributing factor to embodied carbon, and measuring in-use performance or ‘bridging the performance gap’ could limit this by encouraging lean design.
The Roadmap recommends the Standard is strengthened over time and adopted into future updates to the Local Plans.
Although supply chains, technology and methods of construction will be developed over time, viability in the meantime is likely to be a challenge, therefore public funding could assist in helping to fill some of the gaps preventing transition to net zero.
We will continue to play our part in the Task Group which will maintain its involvement and engage collaboratively with Manchester City Council to promote the policy as the new Local Plan is developed.
For further information or to understand how our Sustainability team can support your projects, please contact Fiona Lomas-Holt.
6 September 2021